Individual faculty are responsible for deciding what counts as appropriate academic conduct in their own courses and for communicating this clearly to students. In addition, Georgia Tech has an Academic Honor Code, and faculty are expected to forward suspected violations for this code to the Office of Student Integrity (OSI). In order to penalize a student for academic misconduct, you first must report the incident to OSI, or conduct a faculty conference resolution with the student. Click here for information about typical sanctions and minimum penalties for academic misconduct.

Accommodations for students with disabilities are a civil right and are protected by federal law. Accommodations are prescribed on an individual basis, based on the student's need and the disability documentation available through the Office of Disability Services. Any student requesting accommodations as a result of a disability should be referred to Disability Services. Once referred, staff will work with the student to arrange for appropriate accommodations. The student will then receive an accommodation letter detailing necessary accommodations and should make arrangements to meet with each instructor to review this letter.

At Georgia Tech, students are generally expected to attend class regularly, and instructors are expected to hold classes at their institutionally scheduled time. Instructors are not permitted to penalize students for not attending sessions outside of institutionally scheduled times.

During the fall and spring semesters, no tests or quizzes are permitted during the final two instructional days of the semester. Any other graded work that is required during those last two days must be listed in your syllabus on the first day of class. In addition, all tests and quizzes (other than the final exam) should be graded and reported to students by the last day of class. Reading periods will be scheduled during the final exam period and are meant to allow students the time they need to prepare for final exams. For any class with a scheduled final exam, no other work may be due during the final exam period. Review sessions may be scheduled, but they must be optional, new content may not be covered, and any material provided must be made available to all students, regardless of their attendance at the session. Students with two final exams scheduled at the same time, or three final exams in one day, will be permitted to take one exam during the Conflict Examination Period – or at a time agreed upon by the instructor and the student. Students with final exam conflicts are expected to notify their instructor of the conflict at least two weeks before the Thursday of the Final Exam Period. Click here for more information.

Final grades at Georgia Tech are entered as whole letter grades (e.g., you can assign a final grade of B, but not B+ or B-). A student may be assigned a grade of I (Incomplete) when he or she was doing satisfactory work but was unable to meet the full requirements of the course due to nonacademic circumstances beyond their control, deemed acceptable by the instructor. A good rule of thumb is that the student should have completed at least 70 percent of the work for a course and be passing it to qualify for an Incomplete. Students are afforded the right to dispute their course grade by way of Georgia Tech’s Grievance Procedure.

When students turn in work to be graded (including assignments, projects, and exams), it is the instructor’s responsibility to ensure their students have access to grading criteria and that their graded work will be available for them to review in a timely manner. Grading may be delegated to teaching assistants, but the expectations for clear grading criteria and timely return of graded work remain.

Georgia Tech allows for officially recognized absences through the Office of the Registrar and the Student Academic and Financial Affairs Committee (SAFAC) of the Academic Senate. Some events are automatically granted the status of Institute-approved absences (e.g., athletic events and trips with official student organizations), while others require students to apply to SAFAC in advance to receive official approval. Students are also permitted to be absent from class to take part in religious observances, but for planning purposes, they are expected to provide you with written notice of their upcoming absence within the first two weeks of class. Students may also choose to appeal to SAFAC for approval of absences for religious reasons, particularly if they have not informed you of their upcoming absence within the first two weeks of class.

When students miss class due to an Institute-approved absence, you are not permitted to penalize their grades, but you are required to allow them to make up the work missed. That said, you are also welcome to approve student absences yourself (without requiring students to go through the process with SAFAC). Click here for more information on this policy.

FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) affords students certain rights with respect to their education records, including the right to have some control over the release of personally identifiable information from their records. This means you should not post or announce grades, or return graded work, in a way that allows anyone other than you, your teaching assistants, and the individual student to identify the grade. In addition, grades should not be discussed with parents without explicit permission from the student. You are permitted to talk to your students’ academic advisors about their grades and performance in your class. Student athletes have academic advisors within Athletics, and while you can discuss their performance and progress with those advisors, you should not discuss their performance and progress with coaches or other athletics personnel.

Progress reports will be required for all 1000- and 2000-level courses by the end of week six (fall and spring terms only). These are meant to advise the individual student and his or her academic advisor, and will not contribute to a student’s GPA or show up on a transcript. Progress report options are S (Satisfactory) or U (Unsatisfactory, performance level of D or lower) and should be based on the completion of at least one graded assignment. In addition, all students should have completed and received feedback on a graded assessment prior to drop day (the last day to withdraw from classes with a W on the transcript). See Regulation VI.H.3 for more information

Syllabi should be made available to students during the first week of classes. According to Regulation VI.H.1, your syllabus must provide an outline of (1) course objectives, (2) required materials, (3) criteria that will be used to determine a student’s course grade, (4) additional criteria for successful completion of the course, and (5) an outline of acceptable conduct as it relates to the Honor Code and the Student-Faculty Expectations agreement. When changes are made to a syllabus, the course instructor is required to clearly inform their students of these changes, allowing sufficient time for students to adjust and adapt to the changes made. Click here for additional resources related to the development of your syllabus.

Three weeks into the semester, instructors are required to verify whether students have or have not participated in their course (e.g., attended class, filled out a pre-class survey, etc.). This can be done via this link. After the semester is over, for any student who has failed your class, you will be asked to report the last time he or she engaged in class activities (e.g., turned in an assignment, attended class, etc.). These requests are related to Federal Title IV reporting requirements.